Update. As I trust most users of Nikon NX2.3.0 with the Nik Color Efex Complete filter bundle are aware now everything works in 64 bit. Nik is now providing a 64 bit compatible version of Color Efex 3 Complete for NX2.3.0.
However, I must note: some of my files from previous NX2 edits will not open at all or open as if they were shot at a much, much higher ISO than they were. I must say that the people at Nikon Support, 800-645-6689, are working with me to solve this problem and I am sincerely impressed with their attention to this matter.
Still, were is Nikon Capture NX3 with greater Nik filter compatability?
I should have posted this sooner. My excuses are an unplanned respiratory illness, busy getting an exhibit ready and my generally lazy nature.
Respectfully,KFW 02/02/12
Previous post:
One) NX 2.3.0 Must be downloaded as 32 bit. Otherwise utilization of Nik Color Efex Pro plug in filters is not possible. They can not be accessed in the 64 bit download.
Two) Uninstall whatever version you have of the Nik Color Efex Pro 3 plug in (unless your Nik Color Efex Pro is already working with your upgrade to NX 2.3.0).
Three) Install Nik Color Efex Select inorder to insure that you have the needed Microsoft visual ++ redistributable whatevers. I wanted to provide you the link, but I cuold not get that to work. So you will have to contact Nik. I did this installation step from a link provided by Nik Technical Support from a drop box site.
Four)Uninstall the Nik Color Efex Select you just installed. According to the very helpful Nik Support people this leaves the Microsoft visual ++ redistributable whatevers needed for the Nik plug in to function in NX2.3.0.
Five) Install the latest version of Color Efex Pro Complete from a link which you can obtain from Nik Software 888-284-4085 Mon-Fri 8:30am-5pm PST. These steps solved the imediate problem for me and the new NX2.3.0 and the Nik Color Efex Pro 3 are, for the time being, working fine.
I wanted to provide you the links which Nik gave me to accomplish this,but I could not get that to work. So, once again, I can only advise you to call Nik 888-284-4085. The people at Nik are really helpful.
Having said that I feel guilty. Why should the people at Nik carry the burden of Nikon's sins? I tried to solve this issue through Nikon's tech support. Whats new, they would not even acknowedge any problem existed. In fact they probably really don't know. I sent them the prerequisite system summary and, I suspect, anyone with the missfortune of experiencing Nikon's "Tech support" can guess what circular file that might place your problem. Any response they might provide could leave the circular file seeming the preferable outcome.
The future does not look good. So, now I am successfully hooked up to an obsolete version of Nik's Color Efex. I guess the one percent in Tokyo is just as stupid as the rest. Had they embraced a marriage with Nik technology they coud have revolutionized editing software. Created a market that would have challenged the big boys and blazed new profits and brand loyalty for Nikon. Instead they must be hanging out in the same after hour joints as the boys from Olympus focused on the dancer of the moment and their own delusions of managment competence.
Respectfully,KFW 12/23/11
Happy Holidays and Good Luck
Friday, December 23, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
The Profoundly Plain
The by ways of ordinary. Just Off the Tracks. By the docks. Not far off the highway. Humble dwellings. In town. Beer would be the preference.
Mechanical industrial structures in uncertain moment. An ugly place. A place of deep familiar comfort. Down to earth solid types, Powerful gritty texture, bold if not awkward shape and blunt rich hue. Beauty upon tender scrutiny. A part of all of us.
This collection will be on display April to June 2012 at the University of Connecticut Medical Center's Celeste LeWitt Gallery. I will post exact dates when I have them. KFW 12/20/12
Mechanical industrial structures in uncertain moment. An ugly place. A place of deep familiar comfort. Down to earth solid types, Powerful gritty texture, bold if not awkward shape and blunt rich hue. Beauty upon tender scrutiny. A part of all of us.
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| Saga Of Toil |
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| 5:30 AM Near Pittsburgh |
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| Alley In Time |
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| By Itself |
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| By Many Names |
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| Canal |
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| Challenge |
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| Country Quilt |
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| Diagonal Vision |
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| Harbor Life |
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| In Form And Tone |
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| New Bedford |
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| Red Accent |
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| Secret Project |
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| Temple of The Blue Collar |
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| The Back Yard |
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| The Dock |
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| The Parents Lived Here |
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| The Pink Flamingo |
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| The White House |
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| Wet |
This collection will be on display April to June 2012 at the University of Connecticut Medical Center's Celeste LeWitt Gallery. I will post exact dates when I have them. KFW 12/20/12
Thursday, December 15, 2011
The Samyang AE 14mm f/2.8 ED AS UMC Lens
Who, what,when, where and why . Thur. 12/15/11
I have been working on improving my work. In order to improve my understanding and use of perspective I wanted to limit my optics to three prime lenses. One wide, one normal and one short telephoto. For the time being I am giving the zooms a rest. I wanted, for a time, to limit choices and focus on one perspective at a time. Also, to travel light and simple.
The available choices of normal and short telephoto prime optics for crop sensor dslr cameras abound, but what about a real prime lens wide angle choice? Right you are, not many. So the Samyang 14mm came to mind. It is manufactured by the Korean Samyang Company. In the U.S.A. the lens is marketed under Rokinon, Phoenix, Vivitar and other house brand names. The lens I purchased is electronically coupled to the camera. Consequently, aperture can be set from the camera body, the camera's meter is fully operational, the focus indicators work and all of my EXIF data is recorded. To this point I can not tell you which of these house brands is, AE, electronically coupled. I phoned B and H and the service representative told me that the Rokinon version they market is not. I am not sure that is correct, however at the time the model number and specs did not show any AE.
So, to obtain this lens with AE and under the actual name of Samyang I ordered mine from Poland through Foto Tip www.foto-tip.pl/sklep. I should mention that Karol Pietka,www.samyang.pl Sales and marketing manager for Samyang in Poland was very courteous and helpful. Also helpful are information about and reviews of this device available from Photozone www.photozone.de and even more so www.lenstip.com. When reading the Lenstip review be sure to select the review for the current USM version. Note: that AE has been sdded since that review was published.
What a surprise! But first let's get two things out of the way. One is that this is a manual focus lens. Well at 14mm on DX or FX what would that matter? I set the focus to between two and three meters with the apeture at f/5.6 or f/8.0 and just shoot. Everything is in focus. Note: some blog and forum people have noted a problen with the alignment of the distance scale with these lenes. I have not had this issue. The second is that this lens has a lot of distortion. Barrel in the center and on FX whiskers to the edges. I only work with DX. The distotion is high, however in most images it is not really a factor and a simple hit of the default setting in "correction/distortion" in Capture NX2 (NX2 being a subject for some other day) works wonders. If you are into architectural photagraphy then this lens is not appropriate. The amount of correction that would be needed in Photoshop or PTlens would IMHO degrade the image and leave it no longer a wide angle view. Once again, in real life shooting this is not a big issue unless you insist on putting verticals towards the edge of your compositions. Perhaps it would be fair to consider that serious architectural work probably begs the use of specialized tilt and shift lenses in any event. Please review the quick test shot sample images. They have recieved no compenstion for distortion other than the mild aforementioned NX2 Adjust Section Distortion Control default setting.
I have been working on improving my work. In order to improve my understanding and use of perspective I wanted to limit my optics to three prime lenses. One wide, one normal and one short telephoto. For the time being I am giving the zooms a rest. I wanted, for a time, to limit choices and focus on one perspective at a time. Also, to travel light and simple.
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| Hard Mid Day Side Light |
The available choices of normal and short telephoto prime optics for crop sensor dslr cameras abound, but what about a real prime lens wide angle choice? Right you are, not many. So the Samyang 14mm came to mind. It is manufactured by the Korean Samyang Company. In the U.S.A. the lens is marketed under Rokinon, Phoenix, Vivitar and other house brand names. The lens I purchased is electronically coupled to the camera. Consequently, aperture can be set from the camera body, the camera's meter is fully operational, the focus indicators work and all of my EXIF data is recorded. To this point I can not tell you which of these house brands is, AE, electronically coupled. I phoned B and H and the service representative told me that the Rokinon version they market is not. I am not sure that is correct, however at the time the model number and specs did not show any AE.
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| Early Day Winter Light |
What a surprise! But first let's get two things out of the way. One is that this is a manual focus lens. Well at 14mm on DX or FX what would that matter? I set the focus to between two and three meters with the apeture at f/5.6 or f/8.0 and just shoot. Everything is in focus. Note: some blog and forum people have noted a problen with the alignment of the distance scale with these lenes. I have not had this issue. The second is that this lens has a lot of distortion. Barrel in the center and on FX whiskers to the edges. I only work with DX. The distotion is high, however in most images it is not really a factor and a simple hit of the default setting in "correction/distortion" in Capture NX2 (NX2 being a subject for some other day) works wonders. If you are into architectural photagraphy then this lens is not appropriate. The amount of correction that would be needed in Photoshop or PTlens would IMHO degrade the image and leave it no longer a wide angle view. Once again, in real life shooting this is not a big issue unless you insist on putting verticals towards the edge of your compositions. Perhaps it would be fair to consider that serious architectural work probably begs the use of specialized tilt and shift lenses in any event. Please review the quick test shot sample images. They have recieved no compenstion for distortion other than the mild aforementioned NX2 Adjust Section Distortion Control default setting.
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| Drab Gray Winter Light |
Back to the surprise. It is such a shame that it is not possible to show how extrordinary the performance of this lens really is. The jpegs sized for the web and and the limitations of monitors do not allow me to show you the quality of prints that can be made from images taken with this lens. The edge to edge clarity, third dimension,sharpness and micro contrast are out of this world. Admittedly, I am shooting between f/5.6 and f/8.0. I have not tried f/2.8. I am using a tripod and a 16mp camera. However, the quality of results I am getting are revolutionary. I own and have a good deal of experience working with the Tokina 11mm-16mm f/2.8. It is a very good device. But, aside from the distortion issue it is not in the same league with the Samyang 14mm f/2.8. This lens has such inherent qualities of sharpness, color and local as well as overal contrast that it alters my editing process. It opens new doors to shooting in dull drab light.
To conclude, not only are the optics a joy to behold the device is cheap, feels great on the camera and is well built of nice materials. Oh well, we will see how living with and caring for these modern bulbous non filter protected front glass elements works out. Not a lens, any more than the Nikor 14mm-24mm f/2.8, Nikon 14mm f/2.8, Canon 14mm f/2.8 or the Sigma 8mm-16mm, for dirty environments. You can not protect the lens with or use filters. This is one fine optical device. I hope you get to enjoy the use of one. At one half to less than one quater the price of the others you well may be able to. IMHO resolution figures alone will not tell you the type of performance a lens can provide. Only fairly large well crafted prints can do that. And on that score this lens delivers. For the tech stuff check out Photozone, Lenstip and others. Till next post, Respectfully KFW
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| Late Day Winter Light |
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
An Auspicious Start
Some new work with which to launch this humble blog. Something the peoples of every continent have awaited with baited breath. I'm sure. Really.
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| Saga of Toil |
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| In Form and Tone |
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| Secret Project |
Three images with several things in common, aside from theme, design and style. For one, all three are shot on days that were not enjoyable. You know those days when nothing seems to be happenning. I don't seem to be seeing anything, the light won't cooperate, I'm getting tired cold and down. But, now I'm kind of angry determined. I struggle to see what is actually in front of me. I try, but I'm not thinking it's going to work. It's been a lot of gasoline, time and miles and I do not want to go home empty handed. Well, then there are those days when every shot feels great. The fluid sound of the shutter, great shot and it's wonderful fun. However, those wonderful days rarely net me anything better than post card snaps, if that good. These three came from the first kind of day, not the fun days. The second similarity is that they were all shot with a "booring" standard perspective lens. In these cases a 35mm on a crop sensor dx camera. So go figure. For those of you who connect with these images I hope you will relate to this post. To those of you not so enamored with them I'm sure you will be out creating the visions you value, in your style, on the days and in the ways you shoot. And I love it all and look forward to seeing every artists expressions. End of first earth changing post. Respectfully, KFW
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